'Refugee Boy' Essay
Discuss the Structure of ‘Refugee Boy’ by Benjamin Zephaniah
Refugee Boy is a story about a 14-year-old boy named Alem Kelo born in Africa. Benjamin Zephaniah uses Alem as an example of how badly treated refugees are and how it is possible for us to treat them better if we treat them like normal people. In the beginning of the novel Alem’s father took him to London for what Alem thought would be a holiday. Leaving his mother at home, his father actually planned to leave Alem in London believing it to be safer.
In the beginning of the novel Zephaniah uses two passages, one named Ethiopia and the other named Eritrea. These passages are almost exactly the same and this shows use that, because Alem’s family are a mix of both Ethiopian and Eritrean, they would be hunted wherever they go or move to. This also tells us that most refugees emigrate because of very good reasons; in this case, war. Refugees are constantly viewed and treated as outsiders instead of normal people, which they are. Zephaniah shows this very well when he describes how Alem had to go through the screening process. Alem is thoroughly humiliated throughout the screening knowing that both Pamela and Sheila were watching. Another example of how Zephaniah shows use really how bad our discrimination of refugees is and how the stereotypical views we have obtained due propaganda such as news television programmes, is when Alem’s father goes to the Home Office to make his asylum application but is arrested and taken to Campsfield detention centre. Just because he is a ‘foreigner’ police automatically thought to arrest him.
The children’s’ home that Alem stays in, is portrayed as a sort of dumping ground for mis-fit refugees. It is basically a place where isolated lonely boys go to when they have nowhere else to go. The whole place is filled with young boys and teenagers with cluttered up emotions. Sweeny is a good example of a young man in the home who has a lot of excess emotion and obviously feels
Refugee Boy is a story about a 14-year-old boy named Alem Kelo born in Africa. Benjamin Zephaniah uses Alem as an example of how badly treated refugees are and how it is possible for us to treat them better if we treat them like normal people. In the beginning of the novel Alem’s father took him to London for what Alem thought would be a holiday. Leaving his mother at home, his father actually planned to leave Alem in London believing it to be safer.
In the beginning of the novel Zephaniah uses two passages, one named Ethiopia and the other named Eritrea. These passages are almost exactly the same and this shows use that, because Alem’s family are a mix of both Ethiopian and Eritrean, they would be hunted wherever they go or move to. This also tells us that most refugees emigrate because of very good reasons; in this case, war. Refugees are constantly viewed and treated as outsiders instead of normal people, which they are. Zephaniah shows this very well when he describes how Alem had to go through the screening process. Alem is thoroughly humiliated throughout the screening knowing that both Pamela and Sheila were watching. Another example of how Zephaniah shows use really how bad our discrimination of refugees is and how the stereotypical views we have obtained due propaganda such as news television programmes, is when Alem’s father goes to the Home Office to make his asylum application but is arrested and taken to Campsfield detention centre. Just because he is a ‘foreigner’ police automatically thought to arrest him.
The children’s’ home that Alem stays in, is portrayed as a sort of dumping ground for mis-fit refugees. It is basically a place where isolated lonely boys go to when they have nowhere else to go. The whole place is filled with young boys and teenagers with cluttered up emotions. Sweeny is a good example of a young man in the home who has a lot of excess emotion and obviously feels